1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broiler apparatus for cooking slabs of meat including hamburger patties, and to such a device in which the slabs of meat are suspended generally vertically during cooking.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various broilers are known which cook vertical slabs of meat. One typical broiler of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,109,079 of Ziegler. In this broiler, a wire mesh holder carrying a cut of meat is inserted into a vertical slot at the side of the broiler. Flames spewing from heating elements at each side of the slot cook the cut of meat.
However, in common with many other known broilers of this type, drippings from the meat are burned by the flames during cooking. This causes unpleasant smoking and odors. Studies have indicated that burning meat drippings produce benzo(a) pyrene, a recognized carcinogen. Furthermore, a meat holder of the Ziegler type tends to trap bits of charred meat which can become embedded in subsequently cooked meat. That is, a wire mesh holder tends to stick to the meat wherever contact is made, and, particularly when hamburger patties are cooked, this sticking results in bits of meat remaining attached to the holder. If the holder is not cleaned thoroughly before the next slab of meat is cooked, these bits will burn and smoke when a subsequent slab is cooked. Also, some of these bits, will stick to this later cooked slab and impair its taste, as well as carry benzo(a) pyrene. These charred particles can cause indigestion as well as contain the aforementioned substance. In addition, in a meat holder of the type disclosed in Ziegler, a significant amount of metal from the holder is in contact with the surface of the meat. As a result, the surface temperature of the meat is elevated during cooking resulting in the production of potentially cancer causing mutagens. Also, after a cut of meat is removed from the slot, it immediately begins to cool.
Other vertical type meat broilers have been employed in which hamburger patties are rotated during cooking. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,907,267 disclosed one such device wherein the patties are rotated about a central axis and U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,432 discloses another type of device in which each patty being cooked is individually and continuously rotated about its separate axis. In addition to complexities and costs of including rotating mechanisms in a broiler, these devices suffer from many of the same drawbacks of the Ziegler type broiler.
Still another broiler is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,031,948 of Lotter which uses a complex parallelogram mounting structure to support heating elements at an acute angle to the vertical. In addition, a special grill arrangement is required to direct drippings away from the elements. Also, like other known prior art broilers, the meat removed from the Lotter broiler rapidly cools.